I need fast growing Shade Tree advice

I agree the natural look is easier, and more suited to my style.
Our house is on an acre field, baking hot field. First thing I did when we moved in was make a big bed in the middle of the yard,all wrong. Prepared it wrong, planted the wrong stuff in it, and watched it get ugly & tore it up. Started to read & research & found all the shrubs the previous owners had planteds are shade lovers...these were the ones I moved to "wrong island." Decided to concentrate on the"bones"...got rid of the contractor sidewalk & step, made a big 6 X 8 step with a curving sidewalk, 3 fieldstone walls, and started planting trees...red maple, sugar maple, flowering pear, eastern redbud and evergreens. The foundation area is now 12 X 15 on one side, 12 X 20 on the other...planted it with boxwood, abelias, false cypress, red dwarf weigelias, groundcovers...I need to move some of those in the Spring. My Harry lauder is in there, too, I didn't have anywhere else to put him but his new home will be ready in the spring. I have a bed of mixed shrubs with a weeping Norway spruce and Harry will go there, next to a big boulder I acquired.
It sounds like you're doing a really nice thing, Frank, for those ladies. Don't worry about buying more stuff, if you can't fit it in your yard you can plant it here lol I still need about 20 trees.

now I'm thinking of getting a couple more white pines in the ground before winter....

look what I got!

Those look freshly dug. Eventually I will get around to adding pine in the back yard but they will probably be some weeping and some dwarf. The temperatures are starting to dip down here and I am wearing myself out trying to get everything in the ground. Once I finish planting the trees and shrubs I have to get on planting 396 more bulbs for spring. I have 10 done.

that's a lot of bulbs! I'm going to try to get my pine trees planted tomorrow.
How are you doing with all the trees & shrubs? I'm sure my ground is easier to plant than yours!

The list is growing shorter. Left to plant are 5 Butterfly Bush, Contorted Filbert, Low Gro Sumac, Crabapple, 2 Blue Rug Juniper & 2 Blue Chip Juniper. There are a bunch of others that need to go in the ground as well but I am not counting them. I've put in about 14 Junipers so far of 3 varieties none of which get any higher than 18" tall. I still have a long way to go before I can slow down. I have to use some landscape fabric under the Junipers while leaving some areas open for planting perennials and groundcovers. I still need to have a couple of tons of mulch brought in for around all of the trees and bushes plus I will be using some of it to cover all of the pots of perennials that I need to overwinter. I am glad that I at least have plenty of time to get the bulbs in the ground.

I'm looking for trees for the back yard and am so glad to have found your post! Were your silver maples dying because the roots were growing into the sidewalk, or from a disease?

Silver maple is on my "consider" list. Should I ditch that idea? My friend suggested Cleveland Pear which I nixed because of clean up and having dogs who would eat them and nuts too.

It's full sun area. No other trees around. Very bare backyard! I would appreciate any suggestions, thanks so much!

Annie

Hi Annie most people avoid silver maples because they're considered a weaker tree, they split easily I guess. I only have the one I have because somebody pulled it out from along her foundation as a tiny sapling and handed it to me lol I was desperate for trees. I put it way in the back away from everything. There are better fast growing trees out there to choose from. I would consider the size of your yard & house, and the tree placement (near a patio?) you don't want acorns dropping on your head) and if you would like fall color from it, or an evergreen.
My back yard is completely bare, also, so I chose the white pines for their size and fast growth rate, they get 20-30 ft wide and up to 80 ft tall and I could fit 7 easily.
I have a Bradford flowering pear, I have no clean up from it at all.

Hi Lynnie6868,

Thanks for replying! I should add - we live on a hill top, it's VERY windy, but the view is great. There are pines on the back side of our property, not ours, so I don't want to use more pines, plus, they'll block the view all year. I need a strong tree that has no nuts or things the dogs can eat, they're chronic munchers! I'm going to google the Bradford flowering pear to see if it might work for my yard.

Annie

you could also check out tulip trees (yellow flowers) autumn blaze maple, honeylocust, crimson king maple, paperbark maple (I love maples can you tell) purple ash tree
Can it be a big tree? wait here's a link....also need to say, Bradford pears grow fast, but they get easily damaged by wind & ice, are prone to splitting. I planted 2, lost one, I know the other won't last another 10 years, but I needed trees badly, and planted it knowing I could put a slow grower near it to take over the show when it dies.

http://www.fast-growing-trees.com/FastestTrees.htm

This message was edited Oct 3, 2009 6:29 PM

Silver Maples lose large branches in heavy storms. The open breaks 30' up lets water and bugs inside the tree making it weaker. Small branches are everywhere after even small storms. Seed go and grow everywhere. Roots lift sidewalks and driveways and mostly stay in the top 18" topsoil making it hard to plant anything anywhere.

Lindens gets huge as well as Tulip trees. I considered them but they both get way too big for my small yard. Wireless Zelkova are cool because they only get 24' tall but get 36' wide. They are fast growers.

Yes, the tree can be big! Are all maple varieties prone to losing branches?

It's windy here so that's a big problem. I already have so much yard work to do in the flower beds that I don't really want a tree that is more work. The only good thing about the wind is that it will blow most of the fall leaves out into the field, ha!

Tomorrow I'll take some pictures of the area. I have a lot of barn stones and rocks I can use too.

No, I only know of silver maples with those problems...I have a couple sugar maples and a crimson king, they're both pretty trees but the crimson king has burgundy leaves all summer that are so pretty. the sugar maple drops those "helicopters" but my yard is very windy also so the leaves & seeds blow far away. If the tree will be on top of a hill, visible from a mile away, you could get one with a cool twisty branch structure for the winter months.
Annie don't even get me started on rocks lol I have a rock obsession. I REALLY want to see those barn stones you're talking about.....

Oh no! Rock Fever! I obsess over them too! About 20 yrs ago my DH bought the rock foundation of an old barn that was being torn down. At the time I didn't appreciate it at all, what an understatement! We used a lot of it at our old house building raised flower beds. I have enough left to build some here, plus some smaller corner pieces. I love rocks! I'm going to take some pictures of the yard tomorrow to show you what I have to work with - a LOT of work is needed! - bare bones, except for a poorly thought out circle in the middle of the yard but for sentimental reasons I have to work around it. The landscape guy is coming next week to plant some trees, I hope to have a better idea of what to do by then. Pic's tomorrow! For now, here is the poorly thought out circle about two years ago. ( Hope the cancel of the other pic worked, should have resized it first)

Here is the bare corner of the back yard, a lone tree. It got pruned down to nothing. While we were on vacation it was visited by bag worms.

aaaw, is that for your pooch? it doesn't look bad, you just might have to make it bigger as those trees grow. Nice stone marker.
That bare "corner" looks like an acre lol What kind of tree is that? Where will the new tree go, next to it?
(bagworms..shudder....)